Your entire post is untrue statements linked together.
> >Covid response in the US wasn't that bad
> Lockdowns were in violation of the right to free assembly, and more broadly the emergency powers used for protracted timeframes to enforce them were ruled illegal by various State courts.
Public health overrules free assembly, and it always has. And we didn't actually have lock-downs in the US, unlike China. I was able to take a walk every day, and in the end found that if the entire US had followed the California guidelines, a few more hundred thousand lives would have been saved.
> >global warming really is causing the floods and fires and hurricanes and the EVs really are helping, as would methane emissions rules and so on
> But screeching Global Warming or Climate Change against everything doesn't
> actually help. It certainly helps you feel warm and fluffy, though.
Don't take action to prevent harm to yourself because you feel bad about the message - a classic "don't act on what is true" strategy. I don't feel warm and fluffy, but I do use solar power to power my HVAC and cars, in the hope that our descendants will be able to enjoy the sandy beaches I grew up on.
> >if people think the bi-coastal elites are looking down on them (and they are), like so what
>"So what?" is how Trump got elected and then re-elected. Don't underestimate
>peoples' resentment to being talked down, especially over long periods of time
>for no justifiable reason. There's a reason Trump called his 2024 run the
>people's retribution.
For the US, for one state to look down on other states is the norm. No one criticizes South Carolina more than North Carolina. This self-superiority is not a problem in the way that dying of a preventable disease or getting flooded by a heavy rainstorm is. Asheville was perfectly happy not being DC; it didn't like getting flooded.
>>If the wealthy don't pay enough taxes, the middle class will be harmed.
>The wealthy pay more taxes, anyone who understands how tax brackets are
>structured should know this. Yes, tax avoidance/efficiency shenanigans abound,
>Trump himself has admitted to using them, but why not? Noone is going to leave
>money on the table. The law allows for them. The tax laws should be rewritten if
>it's a problem.
Compared to like when Nixon was President, the middle class is harmed and the wealthy pay much less (prima facie not enough given the issues with having good schools). I would love to let the Trump tax cuts expire.
>>Making sure black folks and other historically disadvantaged groups do better will raise the quality of life for all of us
>Speaking as a Japanese-Americann, equity initiatives like DEI and Affirmative
>Action have always left me a bad taste. They are racism, sexism, and all the
>other forms of discrimination. I 300% support Trump's mandate to judge everyone
>strictly based on merit, it's MLK's dream given new life.
Do you think Trump is actually hiring the best people for jobs? Do you think legacy admissions to elite schools is a good idea? Do you think that allowing people to continue to refuse to sell homes to Asians is good? I live in a city with only about 2% African Americans, so the discriminatees are mostly Asian and South Asian. What I have found is that a more egalitarian approach to cultural differences enriches the whole city. And I certainly supported reparations to the survivors of the Japanese internment camps, and would support a similar pay-back for the descendants of people impoverished by chattel slavery or red-lining, racist urban "redevelopment" or job discrimination.
>>if we don't encourage the successful migration and acculturation of people from around the world, our population will decline and our economy will decline.
>There is nothing successful about illegal aliens spamming the country en masse. >There is nothing prosperous about an economy propped up by illegal slave labor.
Not sure what you mean by illegal slave labor, but immigration to the United States is overwhelmingly an economic and cultural positive. Most (at least as of 4 Feb 25, things are changing rapidly) of the "illegal" immigrants Trump is referring to are legal refugees who very quickly become successful US residents and to whom we have treaty obligations to help (because of the problems before WWII).
>>If we don't invest in science, we will loose power and knowledge to those that do. The entitled white folks that teased all the kids that were good at math and science in the 1970s etc. might wish it weren't so, but it is so.
>The sheer amount of tax dollars being spent with wanton abandon is ridiculous science or otherwise, especially when we also have many pressing concerns that need to be on the budget.
US gov't spends about $73B in 2022 according to https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20246
Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Defense are roughly 10x that. It's very little spending for a lot of good benefits; even on a purely economic basis, pure research pays for itself. Again, your post seems to be a long series of falsehoods. I don't know if you believe them or not, but your post makes my point: Trump was elected by voters that believe things that are not so.